Shingles prove to be gold mine for thieves

[question everything]

Shingles prove to be gold mine for thieves

By ANDRE COE, Associated Press Writer


DALLAS – Workers at Bradco Supply Corp. arrived one morning to find someone severed the heavy chain locks on the security fence at the Fort Worth shingle supply warehouse. Inside, empty wooden pallets were splintered and scattered across the floor. They'd been robbed. Again. Thieves have targeted Bradco Supply locations so much in recent months that company officials decided to add a unique splash of paint to the shingles' packaging to help police track down the stolen roofing material.

Crooks nationwide have been stealing millions of dollars worth of shingles from companies this year, a sizable increase from years past. Previously, thieves would steal them from construction sites, but not on this level. They're now getting ambitious, robbing warehouses — sometimes several semi-truckloads at a time — and hauling away hundreds of thousands of dollars in shingles. In Texas alone, at least $4 million worth have been stolen this year.

(snip)

Investigators believe some thieves are part of an organized operation, stockpiling the materials in anticipation of hurricanes, tornadoes and other roof-ripping storms that would heighten the demand for their stolen wares. Other thefts may be isolated incidents from people looking to sell the shingles to roofers for a quick buck. Also, the soaring price of shingles, which are petroleum-based products, has driven the demand for cheaper, black-market roofing material. The thefts are forcing roofing companies to spend thousands of dollars on security cameras, lighting and closed-circuit television equipment.

(snip)

Besides Atlanta, thieves have hit ABC Supply's locations in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, California, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Connecticut, Maryland and Texas, Schuch said. Shingle thieves have also robbed several warehouses owned by Avenel, N.J.-based Bradco Supply. The Fort Worth theft in May left the warehouse ransacked and missing 10 semitrailer loads of shingles — worth a total of $120,000 and enough to cover approximately 65 homes of about 3,200 square feet each. In August, thieves hit Bradco's facility in Tulsa, Okla., and hauled away another $100,000 worth of shingles.

(snip)

The tough economy has helped fuel the thefts because stolen shingles are cheaper. A roofer who buys his shingles from a reputable supplier would charge between $12,000 and $14,000 to roof a 3,200-square-foot home, said Schuch, the ABC Supply security chief. A thief may charge $7,500 for the same job. "A homeowner's gotta be thinking, 'You're kidding me. That's too good to pass up,'" he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_bi_ge/us_shingle_thefts

[johnnie]

1. I had shingles once

No one tried to take them, they just itched like hell.

[Rick Myers]

2. Beat to the punch once again!!! LMAO!!!

[question everything]

6. Sigh

:banghead:

[TxRider]

3. I believe it

The storms we've had here in DFW have every house in the neighborhood getting a new roof, apparently whether they really need one or not.

Huge storm, followed by thousands of "inspectors" running new roofs from the insurance companies.

Stacks of shingles have been sitting in every other driveway for a couple of months, as even the crews coming in from out of state cannot keep up.

It's finally starting to die down some, only one or two houses around have pallets of shingles out front now.

I'm just annoyed at having a "you probably need a new roof!" door hangers on my door every day when I get home..

[question everything]

7. We had a major hail storm last summer

and every house got new roof and, in many cases, new siding.

We did not see any damage but got the insurance inspector to climb the roof, just to have things documented, in case there was a second storm with real damages. He found some cosmetics by vents and some dents on the gutters which, had we decided to fix would fall within the deductible.

Still, I called our roofer from few years back. He came, took a picture with his phone to show me and said that there was no need to fix anything. He then pointed to a neighbor's house and commented that that roof, too, did not need replacing but, I suppose, since the insurance was going to pay the neighbor found someone else who did.

[rocktivity]

4. Reminds me of a story I read about a pair of crime sprees in an African country

Smashing green stoplights--and selling fake emeralds!


rocktivity

[jmowreader]

5. You're looking at a MAJOR crime ring here

Shingles are heavy as fuck, and you need a lot of them to do anything. If you were doing 3200 square foot roofs, you would need five skids of three-tab shingles, at two tons per skid, to roof two homes. If you're using architectural shingles you'll need six skids of architectural shingles plus a skid of three-tab shingles to do the same amount of roof--the numbers are different because there are only 36 bundles of shingles on a skid of architectural, rather than the 48 on a skid of three-tabs.

So...if you're going to steal shingles you need a rollback if you're stealing them on a per-job basis, or a semi with a platform trailer if you're stealing for resale. Admittedly there are a LOT of these kinds of vehicles out there, but on the other hand they're not so common everyone has one in his driveway.